BACK

Well, I'm offically back from my super-annoying shoulder injury. Last week consisted of a 5K time trial to establish some heart rate zones for this season, my first bike ride back on the road since late December, and my first stroke taken in a pool since sometime in November. Let me just say...it's good to be back!

With hopes of a dominant triathlon season this year, I was determined to make the best of my bum shoulder. I don't know if I will ever ride my trainer again, but I was able to log about 50-55 hours of base riding split between the trainer and stationary bike since my surgery. On the running side, I was able to get in about 12-13 hours up until now...I wasn't allowed to run until mid-February, and not long after that I started having foot problems...but it's all good now. As of now, I'm officially cleared by my surgeon to do anything I want, so hopefully my injuries will be done plaguing me.

My 5K TT on the track this past Tuesday went pretty good. I had done absolutely no speed work (and nothing above a 140 HR for that matter) in all of 2009, so I wasn't expecting too much. My goal was a 22:30, and I managed to run a 21:52, which I was happy with. On Thursday, I got on the Lemond for the first time since December and it was awesome! I met up with Paul at the SNG building and we climbed Smyer, rolled down Shades Crest Rd, descended Columbiana Rd (in which I raced a truck and hit 48 mph), climbed back up Columbiana and Berry Roads, headed towards Mr. P's, and then rolled back home. The weather was phenomanal and it felt great to get back outside and put those climbing legs to use! On Saturday, I ran in my church's annual High Country 5K, and it too went pretty good. I ended up running a 21:59, good enough for 3rd in my age goup. Again, I think I'm at a good starting point for the season, especially with no speed work or super big volume under my belt, so I'm very optimistic about improving my run alot this year. Later that afternoon, I met up with my parents and a few guys from church for a leisurely bike ride. Starting in Bluff Park, we rolled over towards Homewood and Mt. Brook and descended Columiana (hit 50 mph this time), hit the green way and Lakeshore towards Mt. Brook Village, and eventually made it to the BBC before heading back to climb Smyer and go home. It was a good solid 36 mile ride with a little over 4,000 ft of climibng, felt great!

Last week was fun, but I'm really looking forward to this week. I've been riding my road bike, but this week I'm going to get back on the brand-new-only-ridden-3-times-Cervelo P2C! I wanted to get a few rides in to let my shoulder get used to riding on the road again before I tried to get in the aero bars. Coming up this week, I've got some TT's on the bike to establish some heart rate zones for the season, as well as a bunch of other Z2 bikes and runs. I'm also going to be getting in the pool 3 X a week and progressing with my stroke. My shoulder is fine, it's just going to take some time to get my strength back. Anyways, this year is starting to look good! First race is in 2 weeks; the Magic City Duathlon in downtown, Birmingham...it's a 5K run, 12 mi bike, 1 mi run...what a hammerfest!